Echoes from a Falling Bridge: A Novel

by Toni Morgan

In 1939, Nobuko Ito, a young Japanese-American woman, travels from her home in California to Japan, where she is to learn the culture of her ancestors. Tensions grow between the two countries. Soon her country and the country she has grown to love are at war. The next four years are brutal, both for those who go to fight (Hirotaka Katsuragawa, a young art student, Masato Abi, the son of local merchants, Toshio Hara, a farmer turned soldier), and those who remain behind (Nobuko, Yoko Yoshida, who manages the local pottery factory while her husband is fighting the war, and the women and children of Nishimi). In 1997, these characters are in their twilight years. Nobuko is a widow. Yoko is reduced to dusting and serving tea in the factory she once ran. Toshio has gone mad. Hirotaka has become the sensei, honored teacher. While the pottery factory is the heart of the village, Hirotaka is its soul. When a murder is committed, the motive is found buried beneath the rubble of a bridge destroyed in New Guinea, fifty-five years earlier. The noise of its fall still echoes...

448 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 7, 2018

About the author

A longtime military spouse, TONI MORGAN has lived in many parts of the US and also for nearly four years in rural Japan. There she had the good fortune to work part-time in a Japanese pottery factory. That rich experience led to the first in her WWII trilogy ECHOES FROM A FALLING BRIDGE, which gives a unique view of life in rural Japan during the war. Second in the trilogy is HARVEST THE WIND, partially set in a Japanese internment camp in Idaho's Magic Valley. The third in the series is LOTUS BLOSSOM UNFURLING, which continues the saga after the war ends. She also wrote PATRIMONY, and TWO-HEARTED CROSSING, companion books set in Montreal Quebec Canada during the Quebec Separatist Movement and 20 years later, in northern Idaho. Her novel QUEENIE'S PLACE is a 2019 National Book Award in Literature nominee. Her short stories have appeared in various literary magazines and journals, and her short story "Tin Soldier" was included in MOORING AGAINST THE TIDE, a creative fiction and poetry textbook published by Prentice Hall. Her most recent release is BETWEEN LOVE AND HATE, a collection of short stories, including Pushcart Prize nominee "The House on East Orange Street" and the aforementioned "Tin Soldier."

Reviews

[Anon E. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lot has been written about the European theater during World War II, but not a lot has been written about what occurred in mainland Japan. This book provides a glimpse of the hardships the war caused for Japanese citizens. Its main character has ties to America and tries to flee after Pearl Harbor, but she can't get away and is stuck on the island for the duration. A great story that sheds light on a little studied piece of history, at least in American fiction.

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing--a gripping saga of World War II told from the point of view of four Japanese families in a small village. At the center of the novel is a mystery, and a long-held grudge. Humans are so complicated, no matter which side they are on.

[Asher Locy · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are a lover of stories then this is the novel for you. Through these amazing characters we see a vivid world of love, struggles, and the result of grudges. I couldn't put the book down til at least the third reading.